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18 people , a beautiful day , grippy tracks and very little bust “ you wouldn’t be dead for quids “
 
I turned into Tynong North Road muttering because I had a slick run through town and would end up at the meeting spot 45 min early, at that stage all I could think about was the 45 min extra sleep I missed out on. Turns out I wasn’t the only one because two of the other boys were there before me so straight out of the car and into meet and greet mode followed by a great chat and the 45 min quickly evaporated and before I knew it North Tyonong Road was jammed with cars trailers and BIRT BIKES of every shape and size, actually most of them were Yamahas as usual but 3 of the 18 bikes were Huskys so the percentages are improving and 2 of the three Huskys we 2 bangers ONYA MARK CLARK  for seeing the light that new WR 300 of your rips .

We  assumed the formation and headed to the unloading area, it’s a long haul in there and this time we did it without losing anyone . Everyone suited up as the sun started to bite as the mercury started climbing , rider briefing over and away we went . Along Black Snake and up the Ash Landing climb to the top of the mountain, nice open run to get everyone warmed up. Everyone reached the top without incident at their own pace, some fired up the hill power slides and all and some crawled up but everyone got their eventually without incident . After a short breather Al Barrett lead the group back down while I took the tail and rode down with Jade who was feeling a little uneasy , happy to report she got to the bottom at her own pace without incident .
We were now ready to ride some proper trails so I swapped back with Al and we rode around to Nash Creek Loop , a nice 4 Klm loop with a little of everything  that starts and ends on the same fire road . After a short regroup I made the eager mob aware of what to watch out for on the way around and let them loose and away they went except for me as I had decided to stay back and ride around with one of the very new newbies who wasn’t quite sure about what to expect . After some encouragement we hit the track and it didn’t take long to get to the first short uphill where we discovered a bottle neck . Mark Dwyer was parked at the bottom and pointed out to me that half way up the hill there was bikes and bodies everywhere so I went to have a look , Ben had gone down half way up in the ruts and as some of the other guys had tried to go around ended up a little cross rutted and stranded. It took ½ an hour or so to clear the bikes and get everyone going again and I gotta laugh when I think about Clarkie on his new WR 300 who must have done the loop about 6 times while we tried to clear the bikes.  ( Thanks for the help Clarkie )

Considering how much trouble the short up hill section was causing I decide to regroup the riders and send them around in the other direction which seemed much better for everyone so away they went around and around , stopping every couple of laps chatting with the experienced riders about what they were having difficulty with and then they would head off again and try it out …..  I am summing that everyone enjoyed our little endure track because every time I wanted to head to another area I got “ can I go around just one more time “ . Wish I had a dollar for every lap of Nash Creek Loop we did as a group I would be rich , anyway at 12.30 we headed back to the cars for lunch and the mercury had hit 29. During lunch a large portion of the group decide that the muscles had enough and headed home shrinking the group from 18 into 8. 

The remaining group being predominately level 2 or better we jumped on a bike and decided to head to the Northern end of the park we headed up Western Track , down Gentle Annie then around Tee Tree , this loop is about 25 klms in total and is like trail bike bliss , Western track is a nice steep uphill that goes on for about 10 klms and winds its way from the bottom right to the top , an erosion mound about every 100 metres or so and the best grippy surface you could ask for  the boys really got on the Gas , Gentle Annie is a steep down bit boring cause its just been graded and Tee tree is also a down covered in ruts and mud put them together and they make a great loop.  And that’s all folks we had had enough , we hit the powerline track and headed back to the cars .

107 klms on a 32 deg day was a good effort by everyone, every single level 1 person improved over the course of the mornings ride well done guys and everyone else that came along and helped me thank you ,  Grandpa , Ken , Mark , Darren , Al and everyone else sorry cant remember all the names thanks for going the extra yard, and AL for tailing most of the day cant have been easy going that slow for so long but hey you got some throttle time in the arvo so hope that make up for it. 

Rider List

Peter Laytone WR400 Memmber
Ben Persson KTM 250F Member
David Arentz TTR 250 Non Memeber
Mick Mason TTR 250 Member
Darren Lynch XR350 Member
Alistair Barrett WR250F Member ( Tail )
Lee Mainnie WR426 Non Member
Jade Donaldson TTR230 Non Member
Dave Donaldson CRF 250X Non Member
Luke Cameron WR250F Member
Ken Robinson KTM 450 F Member
Mark Dwyer RMX 450 F Member
Oscar Barrett TE250 F (Husky ) Member
Steve Morris CRF250X Member
Mark Clark WR300 (Husky ) Member
Andrew Martin WR450 Member
Rusell Peterson KTM 450 Member
Zeb WR250 (Husky )Ride Lead and Written Report

 ;D ;D ;D ;D

Nice report Zeb and well done running your second ride which has grown allot in popularity. Great skills on adapting the ride to suit the tracks and group on such a hot day.

Well done Zeb. Almost a cult following starting? Zeb for prez!! See you next weekend, Al

Thanks for another top ride Zeb! Another great bunch to ride with and i agree with you there that all the inexperienced riders have gained some improvement points by the end of the day. That Nash Creek loop was awesome dude!
Cant wait to head out there again on another of your rides.
Al

Thanks again for the ride Zeb. It was good to get some positive feed back from our hints and tips and pleasing to see the improvements happening.

It was great to ride Gentle Annie and Western again after so many years and with the 9 on the arvo session having a similar pace it was good and flowing.

To the guys and gal who were there in the morning - keep coming back and extend yourself a little each time as you gain confidence and we look forward to hosting you on your first level 2 adventure soon.

On a light note - Zeb, your LH trailer stop light only works about 30% of the time. Oscar, it looks like your Husky stop light is on all the time, unless its just a super bright tail with no stop light. Get the dealer to check it out when he sorts out the idle, good luck.

Al its AMTRA havent been of a ride with a crap group of guys yet  ;D We will go back to Nash Loop after you take us all to Wombat for some disused 4WD tack practice ... :o

Hi Ken thanks for your help on the day would have been a tough day without you guys lending a hand and thnaks for the heads up on the trailer lights will check it out.

Well that was good turn out with lots of new faces and some familiar faces  :)
Every one of the level ones did improve a lot in the morning and yes Zeb that hill on nash creek loop did catch a few out  ;D. I must say I totally enjoyed all the tracks we had done for the morning ride at a nice and easy pace. Hope all the guys and Jade that are starting out or starting back up keep at it as it does get a lot easier.
Well for the arvo ride that’s a different story, I still can’t get the smile off my face  :o ;) ;D.
Thanks heaps Zeb for putting on the ride and Alistar for your tailmain dutys For the day
Hope to see ya all on the trails soon
Darren
Ps Lee,Dave and Jade had ball ( trying too round up some new members )

Thanks again for the great day Zeb
And thanks to everyone out there, it was great to get some help and advice and putting it in to practice. I really appreciate it.
Was a pretty good turnout and a smooth day.
I'll check out that tail light tomorrow Ken and try and get the bike down to the shop this week.

Thnaks for coming Darren glad you enjoyed it and Dave and Lee are ready for a crack at level 2 no doubt and jade is so close to cracking the basics she should befinatley keep trying , we will do another level 1 next month and she needs to be thier  ;D  Hope to see ya soon ,

Oscar you can come riding with me any time , remeber the tree root half way up the hill , it wasnt the tree root that was the problem was it, traction doesnt equal throttle its a combi of the right and left wrist practice that bit and you are ready to go anywhere. hope to see you soon and thanks for coming you have improved heaps keep it up.

Thanks for organising a great day Zeb,that was my first ride with you guys I had a ball and cant wait for the next one.

Glad AMTR was a positive experience for you , dont leave it to long to the next ride OK. Was a pleasure riding with you and look forward to seeing you soon. ;)

Thanks for putting on the ride Zeb !
I had a blast !..........
The Nash Creek loop is a great little track for the new riders to gain some confidence. The steep bits look intimidating at first, but once you get up a few times, you realise that it is not too bad at all !!!!!.
It was great to see Oscar tractor the little Husky up there with some clutch control & balance making it look piss easy ! while the more experienced blokes ( & girls) can really get motoring & brush up on some skills also.
Hey Oscar, let us know what was causing the very fast idle on the Husky........

Hey all,

Another great ride put on by Zeb. Thanks for letting me take along mate. Had a great time.
It was great to have time to practise the same area over and over and get faster and work out what was working and what wasnt.
Thanks again to all, especially Zeb and Al (for the being the taleman who some how ends up running into people - jokes) ;D.
Cheers, Mark

Hi Steve the ride would have been a real handful without you , you were like batman showed up at exactly the right time to save the day  ;D It was good riding with you still cant work out how the hell you got up western track so quickly in the arvo session you must have used the batwings I reckon  :D

Common Mark sapre a thought for Al he was the slowest all day maybe he forgot were the break lever was casue he had no need for it till after lunch.

All jokes aside he did do a great job at the back its a thankless task.

Well done Zeb. but what happened to the photos/vid of the carnage ???

Eric you must rember to align everything to the ride level ( level 1 ) , now level one carnage is a discriptive phrase not and accurate assesment OK, so in fact being level 1 carnage really means that we had a little trouble getting up the hill thier was no actual carnage ...  Is that clearer for ya and PS why wernt you thier to help out  ;D

After going on 2 rides in a fortnight the MINISTER FOR WAR said NO ::) So Im saving myself for the High Country Ride ;D ;D See ya up there Zeb ;)

Turns out there was some dirt clogging up the idle switch/cold starter causing it to stay close. I did discover a little idle screw but because it was clogged it didn't do anything. So its all clean now.

See if you had a lawn mower engine like mine you wouldnt have this problem ...  Modern technology ????

Take care mate see ya soon.